Bitcoin regains $4,000, on track for best day in 4 months

Cryptocurrencies jumped out of the blocks on Wednesday, looking to claw back some recent losses.

Bitcoin, BTCUSD, +9.59% the No. 1 digital currency, was trading at $4,016.40, up 5.7% since Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken exchange and on track for its best day in four months.

After a rough November so far, bitcoin found some support over the past 48 hours and is attempting to carve out a base around the $3,500 – $4,000 level.

“It is worth paying attention to the market behavior near $3,500. This is an area that saw drastic increase back in September 2017, so technical analysis urges us to track the price dynamics near these levels,” wrote Alexander Kuptsikevich, markets analyst at FX Pro Insights.

What’s in the news

On Tuesday, Securities and Exchange Commission chair JayClayton said a bitcoin-backed exchange-traded fund wouldn’t be approved until nefarious behavior, including manipulation, is cleaned up in the underlying markets that trade cryptocurrencies.

“Those kinds of safeguards do not exist currently in all of the exchange venues where digital currencies trade,” Clayton said, speaking at the Consensus Invest conference in New York.

Altcoins higher, futures add 10%

Altcoins — the collection of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin — are trading higher Wednesday. Ether ETHUSD, +8.42% was up 3.6% at $112.59, Litecoin LTCUSD, +11.59% was up 5.2% at $32.14, XRP XRPUSD, +7.38% had gained 3.4% to 37 cents, and Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, +7.31% was up 3.5% to $181.20.

Futures surged more than 10% Wednesday. The Cboe GlobalMarkets December contract XBTZ8, +12.21% is up 11.5% at $4,110 and the CME Group November contract BTCX8, +11.69% was up 10.6% at $4,115.